The London Tattoo Convention: I’m Not Kent…

By johndotcomI understand why people confuse Kent Smith and I… We are both smart, handsome and incredibly funny, actually I’m slightly more handsome, but it is such a small margin of error I see how it’s confusing for most. I would personally like to thank Lucky Bastard for calling me “Kent” all weekend, even going out of his way to pop into the TAM booth room just to shout KENT at the top of his lungs. Thanks for adding to the surmounting confusion… Ha-ha! On with the show…

I arrived Thursday at 6.am. and all I could do is sleep and eat, rinse and repeat, for the rest of the day. Jetlag is a sum-bitch… Also the time difference takes a minute to get used to. Thankfully, Jenn Liles had Jameson…

Oxymoron…

After three-or-four Jameson induced disco-naps I was ready to roll… and Thursday night was definitely a glimpse into the future of things to come in London…

CIV won “Best Banner” in London…

The pre-party was outside of Family Business Tattoo and I started to see some familiar faces in the crowd as we approached. This party literally pours out into the street and outside the bar. What I found fascinating was that drinking (excessively) in public is not at all frowned upon… in fact it’s almost borderline encouraged. So imagine London as a big, weird, wet European Vegas/New York baby-child. Gambling also appears to be legal as well, and I’m a little disappointed I wasn’t involved in a back alley L.R.C. or C-Lo game the entire time I was there!

There is no question that the London show is the biggest one in the world. Our booth was instantly mobbed about an hour before the convention even started on Friday… Nicki [Kasper] and I were amazed, everything Kent said was completely accurate. I can not begin to thank those people affiliated with the show enough. Miki, Grant and Woody really make the London show the best there is… Thanks!

Friday night was… well, epic! Thanks to Johanna for not only getting us into the Crobar once but twice in the same night! This bar is about the size of large studio apartment in the States and there was about 20 of us… Even if the bar would have been completely empty when we got there we would have filled it that place to its “legal” capacity…

Tattoo by Adam Hays

I’m really glad I got to do this show. I met so many amazing European tattooers that I have never met before, Chriss Dettmer, Ross Nagle, Valerie Vargas, Danny Boy, Jordan Teear… Just too many to list here…

I finally got to eat a descent meal Sunday after the show… It also happened to be Adam Hays’ birthday (my brother form a different mother) and a small group of us all went and had a proper meal. My goal was to get Adam “white girl wasted” but that fool won’t drink shots! Happy birthday anyway jerk!

About an hour before I had to catch my flight to Holland, Adam and I stopped in to Frith St. Tattoo in SoHo. This shop is the shit! I had to get a little souvenir tattoo… Jordan hooked it up and squeezed me in amidst his hectic workday. Thanks again, you rule! I also want to thank Valerie for giving me the extended tour, and everyone at Frith St. (Sorry again for bumping into that table while someone was tattooing… I’m a big, clumsy American… Ha-ha!) Please check out this shop when you are in London… You won’t be disappointed.